By Rosie Moore

I consider myself a most fortunate person living in the 1950s. I graduated from high school in 1950 in the top quarter of a class of 400 graduates. I graduated in May, got married in September and had five children by 1960. In the meantime, I worked at a demolition factory outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We made bombs there to send to Korea during the war. One morning my boss came to me and said, “Do you believe in Christmas in March?” He handed me check for two hundred dollars. I was awarded that for a suggestion I made to help diminish the front line and make sure the bombs were not haphazardly made. However, it didn’t last long. In 1953 the war was over and one day we were informed that the factory was closing, without a “fare thee well!” We all went home with tears streaming down our cheeks.

The fifties were an exciting time to live. Gas cost only 20¢ a gallon, the color TV set was introduced. Smokey the Bear becomes household name, Average income was $3,216. Milk was 82¢, bread 14¢, postage stamps were .03¢. Do you remember those times?

I was very busy at that time too. Den Mother for Boy Scouts and for Girl Scouts. Plus I was a Nurses’ Aid at a hospital. But I wouldn’t trade those days for any other.

Remember the songs from the fifties? We just don’t have songs like them now-a-days. The fifties marked the birth of rock and roll. Remember “Great Balls of Fire?” “Love Me Tender?” “Johnny Be Goode?” and “Rock Around the Clock?”

Many people say don’t look back into the past. I am happy to say that the past is part of my future. It is a happy part, full of many gay times that will stay with me till the end. Enjoy the past!

Thought for the day; I will sing of your might; I will sing loud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been a fortress for me and a refuge in the day of my distress. Psalm 59:16

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